Valley City Drawing Few Office-Seekers

Three months after candidates for mayor and City Council of a proposed San Fernando Valley city began filing papers to raise campaign funds, the flood of contenders forecast by secessionists has not materialized.

Backers of Valley cityhood had predicted that as many as 150 candidates might be on the Nov. 5 ballot for 14 City Council seats and a mayor’s post, but so far only 24 have taken the first official steps to launch campaigns.

Just one, Assemblyman Keith Richman (R-Northridge), has filed fund-raising papers to run for mayor. In the council races, only seven districts have attracted more than one candidate. In two districts, no one has filed.

And while the filing deadline, Aug. 9, is nearly four weeks off, the early dearth of candidates might underscore a peculiar problem with the Valley offices: They will not exist if secession loses on the same ballot.

The same is true for the five council offices attached to the Hollywood secession measure. As of Friday, only four candidates had filed papers for them.

A healthy crop of candidates is considered crucial to the prospects of secession itself. The cityhood efforts are depending on the individual campaigns for offices to generate excitement about--and support for--breaking the Valley and Hollywood off from Los Angeles.

Some local politicians, including Los Angeles school board member Julie Korenstein, said they would have considered running if the cityhood elections were held before those for the proposed Valley city’s mayor and council.

“If they had separated the election, people in prominent positions might be in a better position to make a decision to run,” said Korenstein. “As it is, it’s an impossible situation.”

Pay might be another unattractive feature of the offices, particularly in the Valley. For governing a city of 1.3 million people, the mayor and council members would get a starting salary of $12,000 a year. Valley cityhood backers say they would try to lift the pay to $100,000 and $75,000, respectively, with a future ballot measure if secession wins.

The Hollywood council members would receive $9,600. They would be part-time office-holders, however, in a city of 160,000.

Valley secession leader Richard Close supports boosting the salaries, but says the small paychecks could have the positive effect of drawing candidates who are not career politicians.

“You have a higher caliber of individuals serving in office,” said Close, chairman of the secession group Valley VOTE.

Close said there is still plenty of time for a strong field of candidates to emerge. Valley VOTE has drafted a list of 83 people who are weighing a run, including some who have held an elective office, he added, although he refused to disclose their names.

“Based upon the list I’ve seen, it will be a large group of highly qualified people,” Close said.

To give candidates enough time to raise money, the city Ethics Commission opened its filing period in April, about a month before the secession measure was placed on the ballot. The county registrar-recorder began allowing Valley candidates to fill out their registration forms last week. Hollywood candidates are on a different schedule for some filings, but they face the same Aug. 9 deadline for getting on the ballot.

The decision last week of state Sen. Richard Alarcon (D-Sylmar) to not run for Valley mayor was widely seen as a setback for the secession movement. The separatists had hoped that Alarcon would draw large numbers of Democratic and Latino voters to the cityhood cause.

Apart from Richman, the only elected official who has expressed tentative interest in the mayor’s job is Los Angeles City Councilman Dennis Zine, even though he has not taken a stand on secession.

“He is still undecided,” an aide said Friday.

In the Valley council races, the contenders with the highest profiles are former Assemblywoman Paula Boland, former United Chambers of Commerce Chairman Richard Leyner, and Scott Svonkin, the chief of staff to Assemblyman Paul Koretz (D-West Hollywood).

Others said some would-be candidates, especially Democrats, might be leery of running because of threats by organized labor that it would cut off all support for them. City unions fear secession would cost their members jobs and pay raises.

“We’ve said if they run for election in a city that doesn’t exist

Sources said labor leaders conveyed such a threat to Alarcon before he decided not to run, but the legislator denied that the pressure influenced him.

Meanwhile, Larry Levine, chairman of the anti-secession group One Los Angeles, said poll results showing secession winning in the Valley but losing in Hollywood and citywide have scared off the better prospects. For either to win, each breakup measure must carry a majority of votes in the secession region and in the city as a whole.

“I would have thought that there would be more candidates of substance running for office if they thought this thing will pass,” Levine said. “It may be a reflection that they think it’s a waste of time.”

But Hollywood secession leader Gene LaPietra said his group is getting many inquiries from people contemplating a candidacy.